Caterham Reveals EV Seven

Caterham has revealed EV Seven – its technology development concept for a future fully electric Seven. The concept will test the feasibility of a lightweight electric Seven and enable Caterham to move a step closer to bringing a battery electric model to market.

EV Seven is being engineered in collaboration with Swindon Powertrain Ltd and is based on the larger Seven chassis and features a bespoke version of Swindon Powertrain’s E Axle, combined with an immersion cooled battery pack.

Immersion battery cooling uses a dielectric fluid, in this case supplied by long-term Caterham technical partner Motul. The fluid is in direct contact with the cells enabling better thermal management during charge and discharge cycles. This cutting-edge technology is at the forefront for battery electric vehicles and, until now, has typically been employed to cool super computers that generate enormous amounts of heat.

Caterham says that it’s will be a car for both the road and track. For the latter, this means being capable of a repeatable 20-15-20 drive cycle: the ability to drive on track for 20 minutes and recharge in 15 minutes with enough energy to drive for a further 20 minutes.

The weight increase is less than 70kg compared to the current production Seven it is based upon (total mass of just under 700kg). Its 51kWh immersion cooled battery is housed in the engine bay and transmission tunnel and is capable of DC rapid charging speeds of up to 152kW. It has a useable capacity of circa 40kWh, safely allowing the battery pack to withstand demanding track use followed by rapid charging without causing premature degradation.

It produces 240bhp at 9,000rpm and instantaneous peak torque of 250Nm. This will deliver a predicted 0-98 kmph time of approximately 4.0 seconds. The powertrain has been engineered to closely match the performance characteristics of the ICE model.

The EV Seven concept will make its public debut at Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK this July.